Appellate Court Rejects Sentence Appeal For City Man

John Whittaker

A Jamestown man has had an appeal of his 20-year prison sentence rejected by the Fourth Department Appellate Division court in Rochester.

Cameron Rives was sentenced in 2012 to 20 years in prison for his convictions of first-degree robbery and first-degree burglary, class B felonies; and a 15-year concurrent sentence for second-degree robbery and second-degree burglary.

The conviction came from a 2011 incident in which Rives and three other men — Dallyn E. Washington, Derrick L. Williams, and Samuel L. Rodriguez Jr. — all from Jamestown, broke into a Randolph residence occupied by a man, woman and their children.

Rives appealed his conviction on grounds that Cattaraugus County Court abused its discretion by not adjudicating his case as a youthful offender since Rives was 18 at the time. The five-judge panel rejected that contention as well as a contention that the sentence was too severe.

“The record establishes that the four perpetrators invaded the home while the victims, including several small children, were present, and they then pistol-whipped the adult male victim, bound the adult female victim and urinated on her, stole property and threatened to kill the family,” the court wrote in its decision. “Notwithstanding his later protestations of minimal participation, (the) defendant admitted that he knew that a robbery was planned, and that he drove the three co-defendants to the victims’ home, took part in the crime and retained his share of the proceeds. Thus, we see no abuse of discretion in the court’s denial of youthful offender status.”

Lori Petit Rieman, Cattaraugus County district attorney, argued the case on behalf of the county while Lyle Hadju of Erickson, Webb, Scolton and Hadju in Lakewood argued the case on behalf of Rives.